gigtastic

I’ve been a busy boy of late. The past four days have involved three successful meetings, three daytime strippers, three gigs, three hundred miles of driving and one transsexual.

The whole surreal experience started on Thursday at Patrick Wolf’s gig in Bristol. The fact that I was at a gig on a boat soon seemed normal in comparison to the bizarre choice of support act. The novelty value of the boob-mustache combo soon wore off and despite some catchy electro beats and charming lyrics; the bafflingly poor standard of vocal ability became clear.

Patrick himself didn’t disappoint. Glinting eyes, cheeky grins and costume changes created a spectacle of showmanship. Despite a forgotten lyric and the complete abandonment of one song the gig was still spectacular, reflected with the crowds’ insistence on a double encore.



Above: Patrick Wolf - Tristan

Saturday and Sunday night saw trips to the Academy in Birmingham, the first to see Bloc Party. It would be harsh to say that they did anything wrong, but it was just very standard. Constant messages from the band asking fans to ease the crush at the front killed the atmosphere somewhat. I’m all for the prevention of broken ribs but “please move back” isn’t a wonderfully motivating interchange between songs.

The stars of the night for me were support act Metric. I have always liked these indie-electro-poppers so it was great to see them for free. The simplicity of the guitar rifts and synth chords make the songs catchy and the lyrics and melody separate Metric from similar bands. By the end of the set the crowd was moving and a few crowd surfers took to the air.

Below is the video for Metric – Dead Disco.



Every time I go to an emo gig I end up feeling more like an old man. Luckily all the mini-emo kids allow me to get a clear view of the band; in this case Brand New. Support came from Philadelphia based mewithoutyou. Singer Aaron Weiss’ at first seemed a little edgy but the performance grew, culminating with a plethora of percussion.

Brand New played a long set, but seem to have left behind some of their older material.



Tonight… Guillemots in Nottingham.